Local officials raise concerns about new jail site

County vows to check all environmental issues before building

Mar. 9, 2014

Some opponents to building a new county jail on Wheeling Street, near where the minimum security jail sits, cite the proposed location's proximity to the Miller Park well field, which supplies some of the city's drinking water, as cause for concern. Opponents worry that construction on the site, across the street from the well field, could contaminate the city's water supply. / Matthew Berry/Eagle-Gazette

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The Eagle-Gazette Staff

Opposition to the Fairfield County Commission’s plan to build a new maximum security jail on Wheeling Street may be late in coming, but it is there nonetheless.

Lancaster City Council members Robert Hedges and Randy Groff are among the opponents and say the jail could damage the city’s water supply. Hedges is a hydrogeologist and chairman of the council’s Water and Water Pollution Control Committee.

Also, the Citizens For Downtown Lancaster group said it favors a Liberty Center location on its website.

The issue seemed settled last year when the commissioners decided to build a $30 million to $35 million, 384-bed jail planned for a late 2016 or early 2017 opening where the minimum security jail now sits.

But could opposition to that site force the commissioners to build the jail at the Liberty Center instead, which was an option until they decided on before Wheeling Street?

“Absolutely,” Commissioner Steve Davis said. “Absolutely.”

Commission President Mike Kiger said he’d even be willing to build somewhere else in the county other than Wheeling Street or Liberty Center if necessary.

“It could be outside of Lancaster,” he said. “Well, if we’re going to have to relook, and we’ve got to do transportation (of prisoners), what difference does it make? In my mind. But I’m saying, why not rethink it? Maybe it needs to go farther out.”

But the commissioners apparently would not make any decision to change the location lightly.

“If real data from legitimate people, good science, not made-up science, but good science and good math dictates a different location, we’ll take that right in stride and keep on solving the problem (of building a new jail),” Davis said.

On Tuesday, the commissioners plan to examine a proposal from Bennett & Williams Environmental Consultants to do an environmental study of the site. Davis said the study is not in response to the opposition but rather a scheduled part of the predesign phase. Hedges said the study is a good idea if done properly.

The commissioners plan to pay for the jail through bonds, general fund money and casino tax revenue from Ohio’s four casinos. The plan allows for an expansion of as many as 250 beds and would feature a jail with two pods. The county also plans to rent space for prisoners from other counties. Wachtel & McAnally Architects/Planners are building the jail for the county.

There are cost differences between the Wheeling Street site and the Liberty Center near Liberty Drive.

Davis has previously said older maps had the Wheeling Street site in a flood plain but that newer mapping shows it is not in a flood plain. However, he said that because the site is near the Hocking River, the soil is not as conducive to building as somewhere farther from the river. That means pilings must be driven into the ground to support the foundations.

Davis said the pilings mean it is estimated to cost between $1 million and $1.5 million more to build on Wheeling Street than at the Liberty Center. But he said a Wheeling Street jail would be cheaper to operate over its lifetime.

He said another $500,00 to $750,000 will go toward housing prisoners in other counties during construction of a new Wheeling Street jail.

Water issue

The jail would sit across from Miller Park and close to where the city’s wells are located. In a Feb. 23 letter to the commissioners, Hedges said preliminary geotechnical investigations for the county showed that most of the proposed jail site is underlain by fill materials with undocumented chemical characteristics.

He said the materials go to as much as 17.5 feet below the surface and include foundry sands, among other things. Hedges said the sands were probably dumped during local foundry operations from the 1800s to mid-1900s.

“Foundry operations are a known historical source of contamination in the form of heavy metals as now regulated under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and, when finishing included painting or plating, in the form of volatile organic compounds as utilized in degreasers and thinners,” he said.

Hedges said the heavy metals and compounds are known to be toxic or carcinogenic.

He also said maps from the 1800s show much of the site was used as a slaughtering yard, which Hedges said probably included tannery operations that used chromium salts. According to Hedges, such salts leave a residue containing hexavalent chromium, another carcinogen. He said chromium does not degrade over time and that the water treatment plant can’t remove it as it is configured.

“To give a simple example, if you know that your neighbor bakes bread, you also know that he uses flour. You don’t need to have an inventory of his cupboards to establish that as a fact,” Hedges said.

He said the soil would not support the jail, so a deep foundation is required to do so. He said deep borings would be needed for the foundation, and the deep borings could cause the contaminated soil to enter the Miller Park well field. Hedges said further testing is needed to determine how much the well field may be contaminated by the process.

Davis said concerns such as those Hedges raised will be investigated during the predesign phase. Heather Lauer, of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, said the agency has not specifically investigated the jail site for any problems. If those studies show there is indeed contamination or other issues with the site, the county would reconsider, he said.

Shremshock report

Groff and Hedges point to a report the county commissioned from Shremshock Architects in Columbus. The company said the Liberty Center is the optimal choice for the jail, with Wheeling Street the second choice.

Shremshock said the Liberty Center would offer minimal costs, has plenty of land, would be efficient and would reduce operating costs.

Shremshock also looked at the the former Lancaster Glass site at Main Street and Memorial Drive and the maximum-security jail on Main Street as potential sites. It ranked those sites third and fourth, respectively.

Shremshock referred to a 1994 report by Beling Consultants which concluded no apparent environmental hazards were identified on the Wheeling Street property, even though the Hocking River can be affected by spills or illegal discharges that occur upstream.

However, Shremshock said the Beling report determined the site contained 12 feet of undesirable fill material. Shremshock said the site contains foundry sand and said the EPA classifies that as a hazardous material. Shremshock said it would cost $3 million in 2007 dollars to remove the fill.

However, the Beling report said that if drilled piers are used as extended foundations, they will have to be cased and drilled using a bentonite slurry to prevent caving and boiling. Beling said no groundwater problems are anticipated if proper drilling procedures are used.

Groff said his concerns with building downtown also include an increased cost over the Liberty Center and the potential danger of building a 384-bed jail near schools and residential neighborhoods.

Groff and Hedges said building the jail on Wheeling Street is not a city issue yet, but any possible problems with the water supply would make it one. Groff also said a maximum-security jail so close to the downtown business district would be detrimental to economic development.

But Hedges said the city probably cannot stop the county from building on Wheeling Street, as the county owns the land. He said the city could sue, however, if the water system is damaged to recoup any losses in repairing the system.

“But that would be a lose-lose situation for everyone,” Hedges said. “Hopefully, it won’t come to that.”

Response to criticism

“Some of the folks are saying things like we can’t possibly have a maximum-security jail downtown,” Davis said. “Well, there is one. We’ve heard folks say that it’s going to cost an extra $10 million to build at Wheeling Street. Well, there’s no real information to support that. If there becomes real information, not just rumors and innuendos and things that that kind of cost is at issue, then we would probably move the location.”

Davis said the county has a team examining all the issues with the Wheeling Street site during predesign.

“Much more broadly than just the complaints that we’ve received,” he said. “Analyzing all the information that we need to in this due diligence predesign phase. And we’ll look forward to their guidance on those issues. I know our folks have already reached out and had multiple conversations with representatives from the (Ohio) EPA, we’ve got engineers and architects and geotechnical science experts, and all that was anticipated going into the project.”

Davis said he doesn’t think the Ohio EPA has looked at the site since the early 1990s.

Davis said the county has been studying the jail issue for 14 years and sought public input last fall, including from city officials.

“Certainly (Mayor Dave Smith) spoke to us,” he said. “Some of these folks chose not to address us in the public hearings for whatever reason and they’re addressing us now. Which is fine, it’s still predesign. Everybody’s welcome to their opinion. I think the important thing for the commission to keep their eye on is solving the problem and not letting debate or criticism paralyze us as it has paralyzed our predecessors for 20 years.”

Levacy said the commission will not do anything detrimental to city residents.

“Through our due diligence, if you will, of having everything scientifically looked at, through the boring process and so forth, we’re going to see how that comes out,” he said. “And if there is a problem we’re going to deal with it. We’re not going to do anything that’s wrong and affect the citizens or even the water supply.”